The presidential election could hinge on voters in Hamilton County, and Ohio could be responsible for holding up results.

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About 64 percent of voters who requested ballots early have turned in their votes, but officials said they need even more of those provisional ballots to avoid tabulation delays.

"I was just walking with my wife back from the courthouse and said we ought to go and vote today, and she agreed, so here we are," said early voter Tim Sullivan.

As elections officials start opening and preparing early ballots Saturday in advance of the Nov. 6 count, some are worried about a "perfect storm" scenario.

Officials have been making plans to isolate provisional ballots and review them with bipartisan teams, if necessary.

"We've seen an awful lot of your people, the media, in Hamilton County already," said Tim Burke, of the Board of Elections. "They'll be all over this state for that 10-day period of time should it be that close."

"Frankly, there's a lot of hype about that today, but I'm not convinced that it's going to be an issue," said Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party. "I think that we have a terrific system in place to deal with this."

However, it took a year and a half of court rulings to settle a 2010 juvenile judge race in Hamilton County.

"If we have an unusual amount of provisionals, we'll just have to set up more computers and more teams of Democrats and Republicans," said Sally Krisel, deputy director of the Board of Elections.

Early ballots may be requested until noon on Nov. 3.

"I would prefer to vote on Election Day because I feel like it's one of the last social rituals that we have in the United States that we do together, but when I realized how close the election is probably going to be and the fact that the vote I cast on Election Day may not be counted for 10 days, I decided that I wanted to have my vote in now," said early voter Martha Slater.

All early votes are counted first thing on election night, but voters who requested an early ballot but showed up instead to vote at their polling place will have their ballot placed in a provisional envelope.

"Then we'll have to verify during that 10-day period after the election that you did not vote your absentee ballot, and then we'll count that ballot," Krisel said.

The system is designed to ensure no one votes twice, and voters who returned an early ballot and then voted at their precinct will have only their early ballot counted.

"Then that's the ballot we count, not your provisional, because Ohio law says the first ballot cast is the one that will be counted," said Amy Searcy, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections.

If the final count is close, a large number of provisional ballots could delay the results.

"Voters who want to make sure that they get their votes in, if they've applied for an absentee ballot, by all means they should vote that absentee ballot because if we get it, that will be counted on election night," said Burke, who is also chair of the county's Democratic Party.